for people who care about the West

Thinking like a fish

Chad Hanson used to wonder what music trout would
listen to if they could: Brookies might like bluegrass, browns
might prefer classical, while rainbows, he thought, would dig
grunge tunes from the Pacific Northwest.

But he was
wrong, he learns. And as Hanson looks for an answer to what might
seem like a silly question, we share his growing intimacy with and
concern for Western waterways. Ultimately, the 11 heartfelt essays
in Swimming with Trout lift Hanson's experiences
far beyond mere fishing stories.

Currently chair of
sociology and social work at Casper College in Wyoming, this
Midwesterner grew up before fly-fishing became a "big
money-guzzling industry." Unimpressed by expensive trappings,
whether rods, clothes or country McMansions, Hanson cares more
about the well-being of fish than about bringing one to hand.

Long ago, he writes in "The Happy Whale," he learned to
be respectful toward fish the day he and some friends rescued a
steelhead stranded in a small pool below a new diversion dam. The
boys used a T-shirt to carry the fish to a nearby lake.

In "A Sharp Reminder," he catches a brookie trailing someone else's
line; unable to remove the fly, he debates whether it's kinder to
kill or release the fish. He worries about the environment, noting,
in "Carp Unlimited," how cattle leave nothing but "mud and damage"
in a creek's weed bed, while in "Black Canyon," the runoff from
newly plowed fields clogs a bordering streambed with silt.

To understand this underwater
world, Hanson braves the cold water trout need to survive. In
"Jonathan Livingston Brook Trout," he swims with a brookie that
plays with flies like toys; in "Apache Trout," he is lured into the
current by his desire to see Cloud Creek's endangered fish.

In the title essay, he bumps up against Wyoming
water-rights law. Streambeds on private property are closed to
trespassers; only floating a river is allowed. Lacking a boat,
Hanson dons wetsuit, fins and mask. And he finds magic. One melody
plays beneath waterfalls, another in eddies. It's river music, and
the trout listen to it "day and night. ..."

Hanson, who doubts his new sport will catch on, still
fishes in the traditional sense. But his experience swimming with
trout - and the thoughtful essay it inspired - show there is more
to be learned from fish than simply how to catch
them.